Two low-permittivity melilite ceramics in the SrO-MO-GeO2 (M = Mg,Zn) system and their temperature stability through compositional modifications

Two melilite ceramics Sr₂AGe₂O₇ (A = Mg, Zn) with low permittivity were prepared by a solid-state reaction method. The crystal structure and microstructure of the ceramics were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Both ceramics crystallized in a single melilite structure with a tetragonal space group P-42m (113) and exhibited homogeneous microstructures. Optimum microwave dielectric properties with relative permittivity (ε_r) of 8.56, quality factor (Q × f) of 28,800 GHz, and temperature coefficient of resonance frequency (τ_f) of −70.5 ppm/°C were obtained in Sr₂MgGe₂O₇ sintered at 1330 °C. Sr₂ZnGe₂O₇ possessed ε_r of 8.81, Q × f of 35,700 GHz, and τ_f of −84.4 ppm/°C when sintered at 1290 °C. Thermal stability of resonance frequency was accessible when the negative τ_f values of Sr₂AGe₂O₇ were adjusted after the formation of composite ceramics with CaTiO₃.     

A multi-tone central divided difference frequency tracker with adaptive process noise covariance tuning

The problem of real-time frequency estimation of nonstationary multi-harmonic signals is important in many applications. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-frequency tracker based on a state-space representation of the signal with Cartesian filters and the second-order central divided difference filter (CDDF), which improves the performance of the extended Kalman filter (EKF) by using Stirling's interpolation method to approximate the mean and covariance of the state vector. A crucial element of the method is the adaptive scaling of the process noise covariance matrix appearing in the filter equations, as a function of the innovation sequence, which tunes the accuracy-reactivity trade-off of the filter. The proposed solution is evaluated against two approaches from the literature, namely the factorized adaptive notch filter (FANF) and the extended Kalman filter frequency tracker (EKFFT). Several experiments emphasize the estimation accuracy of the proposed method as well as the improved robustness with respect to initial errors and input signal complexity. The presented method appears to be particularly efficient with rapidly varying frequencies, thanks to the update mechanism that adjusts the filter parameters based on the amplitude of the estimation error.     

Physicochemical characteristics,antioxidant capacity and thermodynamic properties of purple-fleshed potatos dried by radio frequency energy

Abstract

The impacts of using radio frequency (RF) energy to dry purple-fleshed potatoes were investigated and compared to infrared radiation (IR) and microwave (MW) drying techniques. The gelatinization rate, color, flavor, morphological, and structural characteristics, thermodynamic properties, as well as antioxidant capacity were examined. The results indicated that the drying time of RF (70?min) and MW (21?min) were shorter than IR (105?min). The gelatinization ratio of MW, RF, and IR were 94.4?±?2.0, 88.3?±?1.4, and 64.5?±?1.1%, respectively. The degree of crystallization of purple-fleshed potato powder decreased with all three drying methods. RF-dried potatoes were able to retain higher polyphenols (loss rate: 4.3%), total anthocyanin (3.7%), and total flavonoid content (35.1%), whereas IR showed the lowest retention. The content of polyphenols also decreased significantly. Furthermore, after RF heating, the scavenging of free radicals was higher compared to MW and IR.     

A Stimulation Method to Assess the Contractile Status of the Lumbar Extensors in a Seated Posture

The purpose of present study was to develop and evaluate methods to assess stimulation responses of the lumbar extensors, as part of a longer‐term goal of detecting fatigue during prolonged sitting. Three stimulation frequencies (2, 5, and 8 Hz) were tested in separate stages, which include 3 stimulation trains and 4 sampling blocks. Repeated measures analyses of variance were used to determine whether any significant differences in mean stimulation responses occurred with respect to stimulation frequency, sampling block, and stimulation train. Reliability of measured stimulation responses was assessed within and between sampling blocks using intraclass correlation coefficients. Stimulation frequencies significantly affected the stimulation responses and time‐to‐potentiation differed between the 3 stimulation frequencies; it was highest for 2 Hz stimulation. All 3 stimulation frequencies resulted in excellent reliability within and between sampling blocks. Use of the current protocol at 2 Hz is recommended as appropriate to measure the lumbar extensors status during prolonged sitting.     

On optimizing system energy of voltage–frequency island based 3-D multi-core SoCs under thermal constraints

Three dimensional (3-D) multi-core SoC has been recognized as a promising solution for implementing complex applications with lower system energy. Recently, voltage–frequency island (VFI)-based design paradigm was widely adopted for energy optimization. However, the existing work commonly targeted 2-D platform, which cannot handle the exacerbated thermal issues and the increased solution space from 3-D integration. In this paper, we propose an optimization framework targeting VFI-based 3-D multi-core SoCs to minimize system energy meanwhile still meeting task deadline and thermal constraints. Our framework conducts at an earlier design phase in which designers have the freedom to determine the core stacks and map them into the hardware platform. Besides energy-aware task scheduling, we also conduct core stacking and task adjusting to balance the powers across the chip for thermal optimization. Moreover, by treating each core stack as a unity, the complicated problem of core mapping and VFI partitioning in 3-D platform can be simplified as a 2-D one. Experimental results demonstrate that on average our framework can achieve an energy reduction of 15.8% over the prior thermal balancing algorithm [17] (X. Zhou, J. Yang, Y. Xu, et al. Thermal-aware task scheduling for 3D multicore processors, IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. (TPDS), 21(1) (2010), 60–71.). Moreover, on average a reduction of 4.8 °C in peak temperature is achieved by our framework, compared with the state-of-the-art energy optimization scheme [8] (U.Y. Ogras, R. Marculescu, P. Choudhary, et al. Voltage–frequency island partitioning for GALS-based networks-on-chip, in: ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC), 2007, pp. 110–115.).     

复频电导技术在隧洞超前探水中的应用

围岩富水带是隧道超前预报最关注的问题，目前，多使用电磁方法来预报围岩的含水性，但受到场地条件限制，面临掌子面条件、金属机具干扰、三维波场定位等诸多困难，特别是掌子面前方100 m范围内围岩的含水性预报，在国内外都是一个新的高难课题。在研究了岩体电导率与电容率复频特性的基础上，结合巴基斯坦NJ-TBM引水隧洞工程，开发了复频电导探水(CFC)技术。该技术基于电磁波反射与相干原理，选用100 kHz～10 MHz频率范围，采用电偶极子发射与阵列接收方式和偏移成像技术，突破了隧道内场地条件的限制。依据1/4相干波长确定含水体的位置，相干能量确定含水量的大小。在巴基斯坦NJ-TBM隧洞超前探水的应用，证明了该方法的可行性与有效性。      

GC-FPD测定粗苯中二硫化碳及噻吩含量

建立了气相色谱法测定粗苯中二硫化碳及噻吩含量的分析方法。将粗苯以甲醇为溶剂稀释,采用GC-9A岛津气相色谱分离,FPD检测器检测,指数法分别对粗苯中的二硫化碳、噻吩进行定性定量分析。该方法分离效果好,测定的结果具有良好的准确度和精密度,整个试样分析时间不超过6 min。